With glowing reviews, Obsidian Entertainment’s Pentiment is the hot game of the minute, but as it turns out, that had it not been for Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service, then Pentiment may never have amounted to anything, or so says the game’s Director, Josh Sawyer.
In this week’s entry of Waypoint Radio, Sawyer joined the host, Rob Zacny, and was asked about the new release title, its viability in the market, as well as numerous other subjects of conversation. When asked about the placement of Pentiment in the video games marketplace of ideas, and how likely a game of its type, a 16th Century, single-player, smaller scale, narrative adventure, would be of reaching success in the industry in the current landscape without Game Pass. When asked, Sawyer replied with,
I never would have proposed making Pentiment without Game Pass. Like, I literally just wouldn’t have done it. I just don’t think it would have been possible. The old mentality of Publishers and Developers is generally focussed on larger investments with higher ROI (return on investment), and that’s not the point in this environment, in this ecosystem. (Game Pass) is the only way in which I conceive of (Pentiment) being viable. For my own sake, making a game so different, I’ve completely shifted my thinking for (Pentiment). It is so unusual, so niche, it’s for a small audience, and as long as that audience is into it, that’s fine.
Of course, Pentiment isn’t the only game of that smaller scale that Obsidian have been working on. In the same interview, Obsidian’s Adam Brennecke spoke of how Grounded was already in development before Microsoft acquired the studio, but that the Game Pass variable opened up doorways for the developer as well,
(Grounded) was something that we’d been wanting to do at the studio for a while, make a survival game, and we already had buy in from Upper Management at (Obsidian). I’m grateful that so many people on Game Pass can try out (Grounded) because the barrier of entry is so low, but it doesn’t change the equation for me or my approach.
As well as working on both Pentiment and Grounded, the studio is in active development on both The Outer Worlds 2, as well as the open-world fantasy RPG, Avowed. With the core development on both Grounded, and Pentiment now complete, we could see both Sawyer, and Brennecke’s teams moving onto new projects soon.